The present disclosure relates generally to a method for performing automated telemarketing and in particular, to a method for utilizing an interactive speech application located on a voice platform to initiate and execute telemarketing telephone calls and dynamic dialog call-backs to potential customers.
Computer-based interactive speech applications are widely used in telephone systems to answer incoming calls as well as to perform various tasks including gathering information from callers, providing information to callers, and connecting callers with appropriate parties. Typically, the call flow is activated when the system receives an incoming call, and begins with a system-generated greeting followed, if needed, by a list of available options. The application waits for a response from the caller and processes the response when received. The application must be able to recognize what the caller said in order to determine what should happen next. The application performs this determination by converting the caller's speech into a text of distinct words (speech recognition); analyzing the recognized words grammatically and then systematically representing its meaning (natural language understanding); obtaining targeted data based on that meaning's representation from an appropriate online source (information retrieval); building a text sentence that presents the retrieved data in the user's preferred language (language generation); and converting that text sentence into computer-generated speech (speech synthesis or text-to-speech conversion).
As interactive speech application technology continually improves, applications for utilizing speech recognition for information retrieval systems are becoming a more popular resource for consumers. As an example, “Info-by-Voice for Atlanta” was an automated, voice-operated telephone portal that was available to consumers in the metropolitan area surrounding Atlanta, Georgia who wished to obtain directory assistance information concerning topics such as restaurants, traffic information, stock quotes, weather, sports and business news. By using this service, a caller provided information in response to a series of questions from a pre-recorded voice, and then received a list of names and contact information for businesses matching the desired criteria. For example, if a caller submitted a request for Chinese restaurants, the system might have identified five places for the caller to consider. In this manner, an audio information retrieval directory can provide a useful and convenient resource for local and topical information.
Telemarketing operations currently employ automatic dialing equipment that can dial a phone number, detect an off-hook answer, determine if the off-hook condition is “live” (vs. an answering machine) and then deliver a prerecorded message or connect the called party to a telemarketer. Typically, the called party understands that the silence on the line prior to the connection to the message or telemarketer means that the call is from a telemarketer. Because of this, the called party often hangs up the phone before the telemarketer gets on the line or before the prerecorded message is played. In many cases, answering machines with brief greetings may trigger the connection so that the telemarketer hears the recorded message on the answering machine. This can lead to wasted time for the telemarketer. Further, telemarketing is labor intensive and is utilized for both basic and complex product/service calls.
In addition, customer service operations typically involve having a service representative physically calling or returning a call to a customer with basic information, perhaps about a service appointment, notification, update or confirmation. This process is labor intensive and requires that a service representative is available to make the telephone calls when the customer is available.